NOVEMBER 15, 2004

Red Bull and Austria

Red Bull is an Austrian company, based at Fuschl am See near Salzburg, close to the German border. And while there is no intention to move the team out of England there is a strong case now for the return to the Formula 1 calendar of the Austrian Grand Prix, particularly now that Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz is pouring money into revamping the classic old Austrian circuit. Mateschitz is estimated to be investing around $220m to develop the area with an engineering and flying schools, a five-star hotel and upgrading the local airport.The word in Austria is that the race track will eventually be bought from the local automobile club by the local Steiermark authorities and also take over the leases of 18 farms in the area which have blocked some of the development. Mateschitz says that he wants to have activity at the track 300 days a year and obviously Formula 1 is an activity which the billionaire would like to see back at the track. He is planning to hold a big air show each year with some of the fleet of planes in his Flying Bulls flying circus, which is based at nearby Salzburg.